Family Rock
by Link and Luigi
Summary: Something horrible happens to the Rikkai Dai team just before they start practice one morning. Poor Sanada!


Sanada's Family Rock

Sanada was leisurely strolling to tennis practice one fine Saturday morning, thinking of things Sanada often thinks about such as beating people up, smacking people, abusing people and, of course, his favorite family rock.

That's right, Sanada has a family rock. It's not a jewel or anything; it basically looks like an every day rock and is about the size of a fist. Yet, despite the fact that the rock technically has no value outside of the Sanada household, Sanada irresponsibly takes it with him everywhere he goes.

When Sanada got to his practice, all of his friends were already there. Well, they're not really his friends on account of the fact that he beats them like red headed step children and you could say that none of them even actually like him and prefer he would be elsewhere…all the time. But we're not here to judge Sanada and his friends, or lack thereof, we are here to discuss the shocking events of this seemingly average Saturday morning.

These events happened to include the rest of the Rikkai Dai team who are, in case you haven't already put this together, the friends mentioned earlier. Of course, it was a strictly 'regulars practice' because there's no reason why anyone else should ever practice because it's not like they're going to play, which sort of makes you wonder; next year, when basically everyone has graduated and only Kirihara remains, what will happen to Team Rikkai Dai?

Regardless, Sanada set his bag of things down on the bench and took his tennis racket out of his bag. He felt around inside the bag to give one last friendly pat to his favorite rock ever only to suddenly discover it was no longer present.

He was surprised at first because he had his grandmother knit a little extra pouch into the bag especially for the rock so it generally fit pretty snug and was safe because there was even some Velcro that kept it closed so there was no chance of the rock falling out. And it was pink. Not the rock, but the pouch.

Anyway, Sanada suddenly began to fret as he fished through his bag in an attempt to find the rock. Of course, it looked pretty interesting to the rest of his team because all they knew was that Sanada had taken his tennis racket out of his back and had then proceeded to freak out.

"Is something wrong?" Yukimura asked finally once Sanada had began to sweat profusely.

"Yes!" said Sanada. He had probably been waiting for someone to ask because he wanted attention or something. "Someone stole the Sanada Family Rock!"

Of course, you may be wondering how Sanada came to this conclusion. Well, first off, he was very positive he had put his favorite rock into its safe pouch and made sure the Velcro was secure. It was impossible for him to have forgotten it at home simply because that had never happened before since he always carried it around no matter what the situation was. If he was jogging, or practicing swordsmanship, or doing calligraphy, or at the zoo or beating people up! In fact, Sanada would swear the rock would whisper answers to him while he was at school to make sure he got everything right on the tests! Sanada would never admit it, though, because then he would be accused of cheating even though he hadn't asked the rock for answers in the first place, and he would just look crazy if he was telling his rock to be quiet, and he couldn't very well leave it at home because it was his family rock and he needed it with him all the time!!!

Though, Sanada may have romanticized the idea of his family rock a bit out of his panic. Surely when he looks back on his thought process, he'll easily reason that the rock does not whisper information to him because though the rock is great and had been passed on in the Sanada family for generations, it wasn't alive. Well, it was alive. In Sanada's heart.

And Sanada knew that the family rock was also alive in the hearts of all the members of the Sanada family, so if he returned home without the Family Rock, they would be sorely disappointed with him and would probably scold and chastise him, and that's something Sanada could not take. Actually, they would probably beat him, and that would definitely explain where he gets his violent tendencies.

Luckily for Sanada, Yukimura had to be rushed to the hospital just then so it was up to him to run practice. Everyone was still a little uneasy with Sanada after his previous comment he had made a little while back, and then the way he stared off into space during Yukimura's debilitating episode that Sanada usually is very quick to react to. That's right; Sanada's rock is more important to him than Yukimura's health!

"Are you all right, Sanada?" Kirihara finally asked, but with much reserve because he didn't want to be crazy abused.

"Of course I am!" said Sanada, though it was obvious he wasn't because he was so sweaty that his shirt had basically changed colors. "And I've devised a new way to improve our tennis skills just now."

"By playing tennis?" suggested Marui.

"No!" said Sanada. "I want you all to go out and find a certain rock!"

"…And play tennis with the rock?" tried Niou.

"Uh…maybe," said Sanada. "Bring the rock back to me when you have found it and I'll tell you if it's good or not."

"What kind of rock are you looking for?" Yagyuu questioned.

"One that looks like this," said Sanada as he whipped out his wallet and revealed that all of his pictures were of the family rock from different angles. There was one picture of him standing with Yukimura, but other than that, they were all just pictures of the rock.

The team was still a bit uneasy, but they agreed to search for the perfect rock. Sanada only paced back and forth, biting his fingernails, and nearly jumped in surprise when Renji seemed to come out of nowhere and tap him on the shoulder.

"What is it?" Sanada demanded as his instinctual reaction was to swing his arm in the direction of the face.

Luckily, Renji can predict the future with his data so he dodged his head to the side and avoided the blow just in time. "I think I may have found the type of rock you are looking for," he said.

"Let me see it!" Sanada commanded.

Renji held up a rock, but Sanada was extremely disappointed. Though it looked similar to the Sanada Family Rock, it was _not _it! Sanada knew right away because he looked at the family rock every day, and caressed its smooth surface every night when he snuggled up with it, and cleaned it in the bathtub every morning before school.

The rock Renji had in his hand was much darker than the family rock, and its shape was distinctly more oblong. Sanada was so offended with Renji's attempt to deceive him that he slapped the rock to the side and it landed on the ground with a THUD.

Renji only stared at the rock and then waited for an explanation from Sanada.

"That is _obviously _not the rock I'm looking for!" Sanada said angrily.

"Oh," said Renji as he backed away slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements. He also made a mental note in his head, adding to his data about the potential instability of his assistant captain perhaps correlating with the alignment of the stars.

Sanada had the rest of the team searching for his family rock for the rest of practice, rejecting every single one they tried to bring to him with the vain hope that the new rock would bring an end to their foolish rock hunt and allow them to start playing tennis. However, Sanada refused to be satisfied with anything less than his family rock.

"Sanada, why are we doing this?" whined Kirihara once it started to get dark and the team had been searching for the rock all day. Of course, Sanada had never told them it was his family rock and how precious it was to him, but they had kind of inferred he had ulterior motives for making them search for a certain rock.

Fortunately for Kirihara, Sanada had been distracted by the picture of him holding the rock he also carried around with him all the time. The picture was in a frame with the words outlining 'Best friends are…' with a bunch of various words describing what makes a best friend, and Sanada was certain that the rock fulfilled all those duties and, in return, Sanada showered love and kindness upon the rock and they shared mutual respect and affection towards one another.

"Are you trying to find a perfect match to that rock you always carry around with you?" Renji asked.

"What?" Sanada demanded, hiding the picture behind his back. "What are you talking about? How did you know about the rock?"

Renji only gave him this look that was like, "I'm Renji."

"Fine, I admit it," said Sanada. "I've lost my family rock."

"You should have just said that earlier," said Renji. "Because I know exactly where your family rock is."

"What?" gasped Sanada. "Where?"

"It's in your special back pocket that your grandmother knitted into all of your shorts in order to accommodate the family rock," Renji answered.

Sanada paused a moment. "How did you know about my grandmother knitting special pockets into all my shorts to accommodate my family rock?"

"I'm Renji," said Renji.

Sanada hastily checked his back pocket and whipped the family rock right out of it. He almost fainted with joy as he threw it up into the air and caught it, and then spun around in circles with the rock, and he swore he heard the song in the distance, _You're the meaning in my life, you're the inspiration…_

It took him all the way until the second chorus to realize his team was all staring at him.

So he carefully placed his family rock back into his special back pocket his grandmother had knitted into his shorts to accommodate the family rock, and then faced his team in a very serious manner.

"If any of you ever mention this again," said Sanada. "Or even _think _about it… I will beat you."

"Okay," said the team.

Sanada cleared his throat. "All right, practice is over."

With that, Sanada took his bag and removed the family rock from his pocket and held it tightly, and decided he would go home and request his grandmother knit a special pocket into all his shirts to accommodate his special rock. A nice little pocket in the perfect place so he would always know his family rock was safe, in the perfect place to always remind him about the special responsibility and relationship he had by carrying the rock, in the perfect place so he would never lose track of it again; close to his heart.

**/End/**

**Um...lolz? It's true...Sanada does have a family rock that he apparently carries around all the time with him. I just decided to elaborate. (I think we all should be so lucky have something as precious as Sanada's Family Rock, don't you?) xD**


End file.
